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Representative lifetimes of stars as a function of their masses The change in size with time of a Sun-like star Artist's depiction of the life cycle of a Sun-like star, starting as a main-sequence star at lower left then expanding through the subgiant and giant phases, until its outer envelope is expelled to form a planetary nebula at upper right Chart of stellar evolution
Stellar mass loss is a phenomenon observed in stars by which stars lose some mass over their lives. Mass loss can be caused by triggering events that cause the sudden ejection of a large portion of the star's mass. It can also occur when a star gradually loses material to a binary companion or due to strong stellar winds. Massive stars are ...
The ambiguous term compact object is often used when the exact nature of the star is not known, but evidence suggests that it has a very small radius compared to ordinary stars. A compact object that is not a black hole may be called a degenerate star.
A protostar is a very young star that is still gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud.It is the earliest phase in the process of stellar evolution. [1] For a low-mass star (i.e. that of the Sun or lower), it lasts about 500,000 years. [2]
A neutron star is composed mostly of neutrons (neutral particles) and contains a small fraction of protons (positively charged particles) and electrons (negatively charged particles), as well as nuclei. In the extreme density of a neutron star, many neutrons are free neutrons, meaning they are not bound in atomic nuclei and move freely within ...
Scientists have found a “dead” galaxy older than any yet found. The new cluster of stars was already dead when the universe was at its beginning. It appears to have burnt out when the cosmos ...
Diagram of stellar evolution, showing the various stages of stars with different masses. A black dwarf is a theoretical stellar remnant, specifically a white dwarf that has cooled sufficiently to no longer emit significant heat or light.
For stars with similar metallicity to the Sun, the theoretical minimum mass the star can have, and still undergo fusion at the core, is estimated to be about 75 M J. [13] [14] When the metallicity is very low, however, a recent study of the faintest stars found that the minimum star size seems to be about 8.3% of the solar mass, or about 87 M J.